Adoption agency to close

A catholic children’s agency has been taken over by a secular charity, The Tablet can report.

Cabrini, formerly known as the Catholic Children’s Society, which was founded 127 years ago, has transferred all of its adoption, fostering and residential services to the Diagrama Foundation and now describes itself as “non-­operational”.

All of its assets are also being transferred along with adoption records and historical documents.

Cabrini has faced financial difficulties and was set to make a loss of nearly £900,000 this year. It has operated with a deficit for at least a decade and a major restructure in March resulted in 25 redundancies, plus the closure of its nurseries in Vauxhall and Peckham in London, and the Fountains Centre for people with learning disabilities in Sussex.

Cabrini’s interim chief executive, Hilary Brooks, wrote in a letter to The Tablet that the charity could no longer provide its core services.

She added that Diagrama had “similar values” to Cabrini and is a charity for children and young people who are experiencing “social difficulties”.

In 2009, the charity, founded by Southwark Auxiliary Bishop John Butt in 1887, dropped “Catholic” from its name and severed formal links with the Church after legislation was introduced barring discrimination against same-sex adoptive couples.

It continued to operate with some financial support from the Dioceses of Arundel and Brighton, Portsmouth, and Southwark and had Catholic trustees.

Terry Philpot, a charity expert, said that Cabrini’s demise was in part due to its decision to downplay its Catholic ethos. “How has it come to this? Undoubtedly, like all charities, Cabrini faced problems arising from low or no increases in fees received from local authorities and the costs of vacancies in its provision. But Cabrini has never been open about the details of its problems,” said Mr Philpot.

In March this year, the dioceses instructed parishes not to raise funds for, or donate any money to, Cabrini due to the charity’s financial difficulties.

Nathan Ward, Diagrama’s head of care and justice, said his organisation would be sensitive to the charity’s Catholic history. “Diagrama is not a religious charity nor does it have a religious base to it. We’re not anti-religious. But we had the ethos that Cabrini’s trustees thought was the most fitting – the heart of all of our work is the people we work with,” said Mr Ward.

Cabrini’s adoption and fostering services, which Diagrama will assume fully once it has been accredited by Ofsted next year, will be the first it has operated.

(To read Terry Philpot’s analysis of Cabrini’s closure, visit www.thetablet.co.uk/blogs)